"Kim's" Inconvenience
Reflections on branching out sitcom-wise and for once watching a contemporary North American television program
Of all the fictional characters ever created, or of all of those on contemporary TV shows that I happen to have watched, the one I most identify with is Mrs. Kim, from “Kim’s Convenience,” but specifically as she appears in the intro. You first see her looking skeptically at some Toronto fruit stand strawberries. The next shot has her walking down the street, carrying a handbag and two vegetable-filled tote bags. A Toronto mom, buying some groceries, a bit particular about exactly which ones, but with neither the time nor the funds to go full Alice Waters on the project.
“Kim’s Convenience” is not “Are You Being Served?” It is not an afterschool special, and its rejection of progressive pieties and the language of… I’ve lost track, is it the seminar room? Tumblr? TikTok, whatever that may be? is part of its charm. But nor is it problematic fave, aka a show whose episodes appear online only following content warnings about offensiveness to come. It is—well, was; its fifth and final season just ended—a groundbreaking sitcom about working-class Asian-Canadians, with flawed but likeable characters. (In Jung’s rather strapping case, very likeable.) The New York Times literally ran a whole entire article about how seen Korean-Americans and Korean-Canadians feel by the treatment of Korean food on the show. A show not particularly about food, as the piece acknowledges, but it is nevertheless doing good. You can shout from the rooftops that you watch “Kim’s Convenience” and this will not require explanation or apology.
Or will it?
From its earliest days, “Kim’s Convenience” got called out for the accent thing. Which is, at best, cringe. The main characters are a late-middle-aged Korean immigrant couple, and their thoroughly Canadian young-adult children. The parents speak heavily accented, broken English. Which, some people do (I for one never got to Francophone-passing with French), and that the actors do not speak that way in real life seems whatever. It is ~acting~ and that is, I think, allowed. (In real life, the actor who plays Mr. Kim once complimented my dog. I was sadly not there when this happened, but it feels important.)
Where the accent thing is odd for the viewer is when they speak with each other. It’s clear why they’re not speaking Korean, as they doubtless would be in a version of events not taking place in an English-language sitcom. Not a place for subtitles, or next thing you know, you’ve got Isabelle Huppert in a sadomasochistic love scene and are in another whole world. But there’s something… I do keep returning to cringe, about their misspeaking and generally stilted communication in absolutely all contexts. Is it A Racism? Apparently not. Can it just be awkward?
But now the show itself is undergoing a bit of after-the-fact reassessment, from the inside. Simu Liu, who played the studly Jung, and Jean Yoon, who played me at the fruit stand I mean Mrs. Kim, have a number of complaints about how things went down, onscreen and off. While the original idea for the show came from a Korean-Canadian playwright, lo and behold it was largely written by men of the white variety. What I had been naively interpreting as the show being real and not written in “woke-ese” or whatever might have been that, but might also have been not that. I don’t know. Don’t ask me, I’m writing a dissertation in my head about Mrs. Slocombe, who incidentally I will bring a photo of to the hair salon once those reopen, because it has been exactly that long and it’s well time for a neon behive. (To whom it may concern: I will not be doing this.)
But back to our tale: That “Kim’s Convenience” cast members felt ignored and underpaid might be neither here nor there (is it not the way of the world?), but a part of this is here as well as there: The show has one sort of dud character, Jung’s boss and on-again, off-again girlfriend Shannon, and she—one of the show’s few white characters—was the one given a spin-off. While there may be more to it, it does rather send the message of, we gave the diversity thing a go but it just didn’t pan out. When literally any other character would have been more compelling for a spin-off. (If it had been Gerald, the other white main-ish character, that would have been fine because Gerald is a character.) What is Shannon’s deal? She’s a Basic White Lady. That is where it begins and ends. I do not necessarily blame the actress, but it hardly matters if the issue is actress or character for a spin-off, when the idea is, as a rule, getting more of both.
And yet. And yet! As with the “Reply All” fiasco, and as with “The Mindy Project,” the simple fact of a creation largely getting it right sets the thing up for criticisms of what it got wrong. The bar is higher, perhaps unmeetably high, and meanwhile everyone leaves Jonathan Franzen or whoever alone. Hmm!
Meanwhile the obvious answer here, for noble reasons of Asian-Canadian representation as well as my own personal desire to feel seen as a regular patron of Toronto fruit stands was to give Mrs. Kim a spin-off. Which fruit stand does she go to, and why is the one nearest to it inadequate? So many questions unanswered.
I enjoyed Kim's Convenience. I felt like the characters were all very human. They made mistakes, but they also really loved one another. I thought the day-to-day in the store was rather genuine to a local convenience store - and lots of regular interactions with their neighbours and the community. The character arc of Janet was believable, and I appreciated how annoyed I found her at times. I also enjoyed that I could watch it and truly chill - no major dramatic plot spins - just regular everyday drama.
I have to admit I still haven't seen the last season (because I've been watching it on Neflix), but the first 4 were just clean fun. I felt like I related to these people and it actually made me feel connected to other human beings. Isn't that the point of a good show?